Post Cold War Dbq

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Could you imagine living in a time of constant fear of nuclear war? For many people living today, this was once a daily reality. From 1945 to 1991, the two world superpowers, the United States and the USSR clashed in a series of ideological political battles that completely changed and defined the post-WWII world. This was known as the Cold War. After founding and developing Marxist ideologies over two world wars, the USSR naturally wanted to spread communism across the world. To combat this, the U.S. followed a policy called ‘containment’ that strived to ‘contain’ communism rather than fight it directly, much like combating a virus; There is no direct way to outright kill a virus, it has to be contained. The policy of containment was needed …show more content…

in the Korean War because it protected an innocent democracy from being conquered by and being converted to communism. According to Document C, communist North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union, invades democratic and US backed South Korea under Joseph Stalin’s approval. Stalin must have done this to scare the US, which he knew was backing a democratic South Korea. Also, geopolitically, if Stalin could force the U.S. out of southeast Asia, he would basically have free reign on conversion to communism over the weaker governments there and possibly convert a weakened Japan. But, with the U.S. “victory” (technically, no peace treaty was signed, so the war is happening to this day.) in the conflict, democracy would still have a foothold in southeast Asia and communism would be …show more content…

Containment also provided supplies and defended democracy in an area of adverse communist influence peacefully. Finally, containment helped the world dodge a full-scale nuclear world war and gave Russia a taste of its own blockade-flavoured medicine in the Cuban Missile Crisis. If George Kennan’s Long Telegram (discussed in Document A) had not been published, the US and democracy itself may have been oblivious to the Soviet Agenda. Kennan stated in Document A : “1. Stalin and the Soviets believe that communism is better than capitalism. 2. Stalin and the Soviets believe they will win.” By knowing the Soviets’ true intentions to be in perpetual war with capitalism until it would be eradicated, the US and its democratic allies could contain

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